It's Raclette time

Last week was the French holiday of Toussaint on November 1 (equivalent to the United States' "All Saints Day" after Halloween), which meant a whole day off with the weekend for travel time. Literally everything shuts down as people rest the day at home, spending hours over a good meal with family and friends. I admire the way people can truly relax here. We get holidays and days off in the States, but nothing ever truly shuts down so it's easy to still 'multi-task' and get other errands done on those days off. Too many times, I remember being more tired after a holiday than before...

Here, you really have to rest because you can't go anywhere and even if you wanted to, everything would be closed so there's no point in moving around. Sooo I spent the entire weekend eating and sleeping, and it was absolutely amazing. I went with a friend of mine to her hometown of Angers, a couple hours away from La Rochelle. It's a beautiful town, with the ubiquitous castle, chateau, churches, and old houses. Best part of this trip was the raclette party we had during the weekend. A Raclette is an interesting combination of what I would call an American barbecue + French fondue + Japanese shabu shabu, of sorts.

Raclette originated in Switzerland, and it refers to the Raclette cheese that is used in this meal. Traditionally, the Swiss cow herders used to take the cheese with them when they were moving cows to or from the pastures up in the mountains. In the evenings around the campfire, they would place the cheese next to the fire and, when it had reached the perfect softness, scrape it on top of some bread. Nowadays people melt the cheese on a special type of heater called a Raclette grill, and the melted cheese is then scraped on top of potatoes, meat, onions, and other vegetables.

I'm hungry just looking at this photo. You literally sit for hours, spending time eating and drinking throughout the evening. I think I had more meat in one day than I have in one month, and by the time it was finished we still had a plate full of Raclette cheese left for another afternoon. The cheese has a distinct but soft flavor, and melts easily on the grills
These large black grills are called Raclette grills, and you place slices of cheese in small pans, known as coupelles, on the two levels of the grill as you wait for it to melt.